


Blood and Bloodlines

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Paint The Sky With Stars [43]
Category: Night World - Fandom, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Witches, Crossover, F/M, Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 15:04:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7623370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, any, bad blood."</p>
<p>Rodney tries to convince Circle Daybreak to help him with his crazy plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood and Bloodlines

Being a human in Circle Daybreak, David thought, was a bit like being a third wheel on a bicycle: useless and embarrassing. But because his soulmate was a witch and part of the council, David tagged along to their meetings and listened and did his best to pretend he wasn’t there. Tonight he was fascinated, because this lost witch, Rodney McKay, had just spilled state secrets like nobody’s business. David thought it was a little pot calling the kettle black, that the vampires and witches and shapeshifters didn’t believe in aliens. ( _You have Twilight, we have Wormhole X-treme_ , Rodney said. _Don’t believe all the bad press._ )  
  
“John Sheppard told you he was a vampire.” Delos Redfern, who’d been raised in a medieval castle as what amounted to a teen warlord, still carried a lot of respect for the old Night World rules, especially the ones about keeping the Night World a secret (exceptions for human soulmates, of course).   
  
“Well, he fed on me.”  
  
“And he didn’t wipe your mind?” James Rasmussen was also a Redfern, on his mother’s side. Night World politics were strangely old world, clannish and obsessed with bloodlines. For how supernatural and new-age-y they could be, they were also boring and stuffy at times.  
  
“He offered to, but I declined.” Rodney lifted his chin.  
  
“He is technically a witch,” Thea said, “so John wasn’t really breaking the rules.”  
  
And then Rodney’s expression turned shifty. It was creepy, to see the way all the vampires and telepathic witches tuned in to him, eyes narrowing, like they could read his guilt. Even some of the shapeshifters were sniffing the air.  
  
“Here’s the thing,” Rodney said, “I wasn’t born a witch.”  
  
David blinked. As far as he knew, witches were the only Night Children who couldn’t pass on their ‘gifts’ like an infection.  
  
So Rodney explained, while the witches looked horrified, how there was some kind of gene that could not only allow people to use really cool advanced alien technology, but also gave people magic.  
  
“Every natural gene carrier on the expedition has witch blood. John and Carson are the strongest, followed by Evan Lorne.”  
  
David saw some of the shapeshifters nod approvingly. This Evan Lorne character must have been a shapeshifter.  
  
“But Carson developed a gene therapy, from a sample of his and John’s blood, that could allow some people to have the gene. It didn’t take for everyone, but it took for me.”  
  
“Impossible,” Blaise Harman spat.  
  
Galen Drache was a shapeshifter. “Pretty sure Kurt and his burnt arm are evidence it’s possible.”  
  
“I said I was sorry,” Rodney muttered.  
  
Blaise went white. “Magic can be...given?”  
  
“Well, no, it’s still genetic,” Rodney said. “But the point is -”  
  
“The point is you say you need our help, and we don’t understand why.” Quinn looked all of seventeen but had been alive for about four hundred years. David wasn’t sure he even wanted to live to one hundred.  
  
“There’s bad blood between shapeshifters and, well, everyone else, right?” Rodney asked.  
  
“Not here, not in Circle Daybreak.” Iliana Harman sat up taller. “We welcome all who wish to embrace harmony between all the races.”  
  
Didn’t mean David didn’t still feel useless as an ordinary, non-badass human (Rashel Jordan was a vampire hunter and therefore more useful a human, for all her martial arts hunter badassery).  
  
Rodney rolled his eyes. “Outside of Circle Daybreak, which I don’t think John was ever part of.”  
  
“Bad blood is a bit of an...understatement,” Galen said. Blaise looked inches away from setting him on fire with her mind.  
  
“But you all seem to agree that dragon shapeshifters are a bad thing. John said a bunch of you took one down when you were in high school,” Rodney said.  
  
“Yes.” Galen had literally fought the thing.  
  
“And dragon shapeshifters were a bad thing because they had so much power and were evil. Absolute power and all that.” Rodney fluttered a hand to indicate rest of the tired aphorism.  
  
“You’re not telling us anything we don’t know.” Quinn bared his teeth in an expression too feral to be called a smile. David wondered if any other creature on earth bared its teeth as a positive greeting. He’d have to ask Eric, Thea’s soulmate. Eric was a veterinarian. He’d know that sort of thing.  
  
“Well, Evan Lorne can use magic.”

“Impossible,” Galen said. David didn’t need superhuman hearing to catch the disgust - and fear - in Galen’s voice.  
  
Rodney’s jaw clenched. “I saw him do it.”  
  
“The Lornes do have blood kin among us Harmans,” Thea said, almost apologetically.  
  
Blaise opened her mouth to protest, but Rodney spoke over them.  
  
“The long and the short of it is, I need you to help me convince John that Lorne isn’t starting Dragons Round Two on another planet and that he’s not a bigger threat than the Wraith.”  
  
“Who are space vampires,” Ash Redfern said, sounding amused.  
  
“I don’t think you’d be much flattered at the comparison.” Rodney cleared his throat. “They’re evolved from insects and they feed off of pure life force.”  
  
“How could we possibly convince John of anything?” Iliana asked.  
  
“If I could get some of you into the SGC and onto Atlantis,” Rodney said, “I think we’d have a chance.”  
  
Hannah studied him. “Does John know you’re here?”  
  
Rodney’s expression turned shifty again.  
  
“None of us are soldiers or scientists who would be useful to Stargate Command,” Mary-Lynette said.  
  
“Do any of you speak any ancient languages or have good linguistic skills? Because linguists are always useful,” Rodney said. “Also archaeologists.”  
  
“Thierry.” Hannah placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been alive for thousands of years.”  
  
Rodney blinked at that. “Come again?”   
  
“Surely you speak many languages, lost or otherwise,” Hannah said.  
  
Thierry had been changed when he was seventeen. “I do, but -” He gestured to his own youthful form.  
  
“I’m an astronomer,” Mary-Lynette offered.  
  
“Also human. I don’t think a human could convince John of what we need to convince him,” Galen said.  
  
Blaise slewed him a look. “I’m not entirely sure John’s wrong.”  
  
Beside Galen, Keller bared her teeth. “Not all shapeshifters who are powerful are evil.”  
  
“You only say that because he is one of your kind, one of the big cats,” Blaise snapped.  
  
Rodney sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “If I’d wanted politics and childish bickering, I’d have gone to the IOA.” He stomped his foot. “Hey!”  
  
Everyone turned to look at him.  
  
David hid a smile behind his hand. They all looked so startled. They were so used to being the most powerful and pretty people in a room that someone like Rodney, with his thinning hair and soft middle, must have seemed like a joke to them. David liked him a lot more.  
  
“Look, either you help me remind John that Lorne is a nice guy who wants what’s best for Atlantis, or John goes off on some whacked crusade to kill Lorne and Ronon and Atlantis is deprived of its rightful commander, its rightful 2IC, and one of the best allies in the universe, and then the Wraith come to Earth and feast on us all.”  
  
“These Wraith can’t be that hard to kill,” Quinn said.  
  
“Wraith will feed on humans and vampires and shifters alike,” Rodney snapped. “They are innumerable, technologically superior to Earth, and they have no consciences.”  
  
Delos said, “I am conversant in many languages, some of them older. Latin.”  
  
Rodney cleared his throat after his unexpected rant. “Latin is good. The Ancients used a version of Latin.” He scanned their faces. “Anyone else?”  
  
David spoke up. “Rashel could pose as a soldier, couldn’t she?”  
  
The others turned to stare at him; obviously they’d forgotten he was there. Gillian patted David’s hand. He flashed them a quick, reassuring smile, sat up straighter.  
  
“Sending Keller along would be a bad idea. If this John character is in full vamp mode, he’d notice she was a shapeshifter. But Rashel is all human, right? And badass enough to pose as a soldier.”  
  
Quinn slewed a glance at Rashel; David suspected they were doing that whole soulmate telepathy thing.  
  
“The question is, can we sacrifice both Delos and Rashel when we need them here?” Galen asked.  
  
“The safety of two galaxies hangs in the balance, not just this one planet,” Rodney said.  
  
Galen caught Thea’s eye, raised his eyebrows. David couldn’t imagine what it was like, making decisions for that many people.   
  
“I’ll do it,” Rashel said.  
  
Some of the tension in Rodney’s shoulders eased. “Great. Thank you. So much.”  
  
Ash Redfern slouched back in his chair, raised his eyebrows. “Anything else, while you’re at it? Our first-born children?”  
  
Rodney shook his head. “No, but - wait. What’s a Wild Power?”


End file.
